Doing It For Themselves at Mphizi

One of the key tenets of our approach to helping in Malawi is to encourage and nurture the women involved in projects to become self-sustaining. This takes time, of course, as we try to introduce better horticultural practices to be more efficient and so facilitate everyone getting more out of their efforts. Now two years in, perhaps it's starting to come together. Better skills, better crop choice, support with seeds, fertilisers and tools has instilled a real sense of pride and ownership among the group as well as providing food for dozens of families here.

As ever the climate is something of random influencer, with droughts being followed by flooding. Extreme to extreme which can undo a season's hard work all too quickly. These are the fine margins at play in Mphizi and across Malawi: we just need to keep working to build that buffer that will allow these desperately poor, often quite ill, but endlessly positive women ride out these weather-triggered challenges. We can only do it because of all the generous help from our friends and supporters. Thanks.